Posts Tagged ‘moon’

Quanta Magazine looks at the latest theories seeking to explain the origins of the Moon. (At the very least, the collision that did form the Moon may have ben much more violent than originally thought.)

Mars may be smaller than Venus and Earth because, in the early solar system, much mass was directed away from its orbit by the gas and ice giants. Universe Today reports.

Gizmodo notes the discovery of another Kuiper Belt object with a strange orbit pointing to the possibility of Planet Nine.

Centauri Dreams notes how the presence of methane in the subsurface oceans of Enceladus helps create a plausible dynamic for life there.

Crooked Timber notes another risk facing the UK in the era of Brexit, that of the United Kingdom’s already questionable data protection. How likely is it the EU will authorize data sharing with a business in an insecure third party?

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the oddly recognizable shape of the Horsehead Nebula, and the reasons for this.

Bruce Dorminey notes how exceptionally difficult it is for current astronomers to track the transformation of stardust into planets.

Gizmodo notes a new theory for the formation of the Moon suggesting that, instead of condensing from the debris left by a Mars-mass object’s collision with the Earth, it condensed along with the Earth from a synestia.

JSTOR Daily notes an Indian entrepreneur who developed a generator transforming rice husks into electrical power for an entire village.

Language Hat takes a critical look at some of the claims made in a recent article suggesting Icelandic is at risk of extinction.

Elaine Showalter writes at the NYR Daily about the power of feminist fantasy and science fiction literature.

Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the apparent detection of the earliest-forming stars in the universe and their relationship with dark matter.

Strange Company notes the mysterious 1885 disappearance of New York City editor Samuel Stillman Conant. What happened to him? Why did he apparently abandon a happy life?

Whatever shares an idea for a fantasy universe from Tobias Buckell, imagining a world where magic has individual benefits but a terrible cost to the world at large. How would it be used?

Arnold Zwicky notes the death of Broadway and television star Nanette Fabray.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at how contemporary lunar probes are prospecting for ice deposits on the dry Moon.

Centauri Dreams notes new models for the evolution of the orbit of the early Moon, and how this could well have influence the environment of the young Earth.

Crooked Timber takes issue with the idea that sponsoring women’s entrepreneurship, rooted in the belief that women are limited by their income, is enough to deal with deeper gender inequity.

D-Brief notes that a brain implant–specifically, one making use of deep brain stimulation–actually can significantly improve memory in implantees.

Gizmodo notes that extrasolar objects like ‘Oumuamua may well have played a significant role in interstellar panspermia, introducing life from one system to another.

At In A State of Migration, Lyman Stone does the work and finds out that the Amish are not, in fact, destined to eventually repopulate the US, that despite high fertility rates Amish fertility rates have consistently fell over time, influenced by external issues like the economy.

JSTOR Daily has a thought-provoking essay taking a look at the feedback loops between envy and social media. Does social media encourage too narrow a realm of human achievements to be valued?

Language Hat notes a new book, Giorgio Van Straten’s In Search of Lost Books, noting all those texts which once existed but have since gone missing.

Lawyers, Guns and Money, noting the strongly negative reaction to Katie Roiphe’s essay in Harper’s against feminism, takes care to note that “disagreement” is not at all the same thing as “silencing”.

The NYR Daily looks at the many ways in which Sweden has been taken as a symbol for progressivism, and the reasons why some on the right look so obsessively for signs that it is failing.

At the Planetary Society Blog, Casey Dreier writes about the ways in which the Falcon Heavy, if it proves to be as inexpensive as promised, could revolutionize the exploration of (for instance) outer system ocean worlds like Europa and Enceladus.

Drew Rowsome quite likes Rumours, a performance of the famous Fleetwood Mac album of that name, at Toronto’s Coal Mine Theatre.